The invention relates to a device for feeding, stacking, and packing aligned laminations of electrical machines.
A device for feeding, stacking, and packing aligned laminations of electrical machines is described in an article entitled "The High Speed Blanking Press of Today" which appeared in the British Magazine Sheet Metal Industries, October, 1974, at pages 655 and 656. The article describes the laminations being punched on a press from a strip of material fed stepwise, through the dies in a lower tool. Guideways are connected directly to the lower tools, said guideways being curved and allowing the laminations to be carried away from the vinicity of the press. Hence, the guideways can be disposed crosswise or lengthwise with respect to the feed direction of the strip material, depending on spatial conditions. The punched laminations are aligned in the guideways and carried away in direct contact with one another in the form of a continuous stream and, still aligned, assembled manually into packets at the end of the guideways, for example, with wire pins or fastening bolts. Maintenance of the alignment of the laminations is an important prerequisite for further processing.
Since the guideways normally correspond exactly to the outside contours of the punched laminations, the guideways must be changed when the tool is changed. The guideways are either removed in the loaded state or are emptied before being disassembled. In the latter case, the guideways must be carefully refilled with punched laminations before operation resumes, necessitating a considerable expenditure of time, since the press can be operated only very slowly during this refilling phase.
Furthermore, the increasing numbers of strokes of high-speed presses pose problems for the packing of the punched laminations produced according to the conventional method, since the capability of one operator is exceeded. An additional operator would be required, but this is often impractical for reasons of economy.
Hence, the goal of the invention is to eliminate the disadvantages of the device described hereinabove and to provide a device for continuously combining and packaging punched laminations produced continuously in a stream.
This goal is achieved according to an aspect of the invention by the fact that automatically operating connecting devices are disposed along guideways for the punched laminations to connect the laminations together continuously.
According to advantageous embodiments, the laminations are connected by elastic material which is dispensed into the path of the lamination traveling from the punch.
A device according to an embodiment of the invention makes it possible in simple fashion to produce packs of laminations of indeterminate and/or predetermined length, wherein the punched laminations, for example, rotor and stator laminations, for an electrical machine, are stored in proper alignment and are conveyed elsewhere for further processing.
The time-consuming, slow punching which characterizes the filling process for the guideways is eliminated, since the connecting device achieves the goal and desired effect with the guideways filled with punched laminations, namely, accurate stacking of the punched laminations.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.